New South Wales Food Authority
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| NSW Food Authority | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Mission: To ensure that food in NSW is safe and correctly labelled and that NSW consumers are able to make informed choices about the food they eat. | |
| Established: | April 5, 2004 |
| Headed by: | George Davey |
| Ministry: | Primary Industries |
| Headquarters: | Newington, Sydney |
| Major units: | |
|
|
|
|
|
New South Wales Food Authority (NSW Food Authority) is a statutory authority, responsible for food safety and food labelling regulations in the state. It is part of the executive arm of the Government of New South Wales, within the portfolio of the Minister for Primary Industries (Hon Ian Macdonald MLC).
The Authority was established in April 2004 with the amalgamation of SafeFood Production NSW and the food inspection activities of the Department of Health (being the former Food Branch and the food inspection staff of the Area Health Services). SafeFood Production NSW was itself the product of a series of amalgamations of industry-specific organisations.
Contents |
[edit] Scope of activities
The Authority is Australia’s first completely integrated or 'through-chain' State food regulation agency, responsible for food safety and food labelling across the food industry, from point of harvest or manufacture through processing, transport, storage and wholesale to point-of-sale and, arguably, point of consumption (see Remit, below).
Before the Authority was established, responsibility for food regulation in NSW was divided across a number of State agencies, some with scope limited to specific food sectors such as meat, dairy or seafood or to vertical parts of the food chain such as retail outlets. Various degrees of segmentation remain in other Australian State and territory jurisdictions. The establishment of the Authority was designed to create a more streamlined, consistent and efficient approach to food regulation in NSW and a single point of contact for both the food industry and public. Even within New South Wales, however, there remains some overlap of government agency remits with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the NSW Office of Fair Trading (OFT) empowered to enforce laws which also regulate certain aspects of the sale of food, among other things. Examples include the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cwlth) in the case of the ACCC and the Trade Measurement Act 1989 (NSW) and Fair Trading Act 1987 in the case of the OFT.
The Authority works with local government, which is also empowered to enforce food standards, to better define and support its continuing role in food regulation.
[edit] Remit
The Authority enforces the Food Act 2003 (NSW) and associated regulations within New South Wales in respect of all food for sale. The Act brings the bi-national Food Standards Code maintained by Food Standards Australia New Zealand into force within the State.
Completing the end-to-end remit of the agency, the Food Act also gives the Authority a legislative responsibility 'to provide advice, information, community education and assistance in relation to matters connected with food safety or other interests of consumers in food'[1].
[edit] See also
- food safety
- foodborne illness
- food allergy
- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), risk management methodology
[edit] References
- ^ Food Act 2003 (NSW) s 108(2)(f)
[edit] External links
- NSW Food Authority website
- Food Act 2003 (NSW) on www.legislation.nsw.gov.au
- Food Standards Code on FSANZ website
|
||||||||||||||||
